Though not a father himself, self-taught photographer (and one of 2014’s PDN’s 30) Zun Lee has worked on his personal project exploring the relationship between father and son for over two years. Lee was raised by Korean parents, but in 2004, he found out his biological dad was African-American, allegedly leaving when his mother was pregnant with him. “For a long time, holding on to the pain of that discovery was easier than dealing with it,” Lee writes in a statement on his website. “Without any information about my father’s identity or whereabouts, the only way to come to terms with my feelings was to examine them through photography.” With “Father Figure,” Lee aims to “counteract the stereotype” that African-American men are “absent fathers [and] deadbeats.” He found his first subject in New York City, and has since found fathers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, DC. Lee, whose day job is in healthcare management, spends as much time as possible with the families in “Father Figure” in order to establish “the level of connection necessary” to make the images he wanted to make. Lee says he hopes the work “can prompt people to question assumptions and become sensitive to the broader context of Black fatherhood.” The book of his work will be released by Ceiba Foto this fall, and Lee hopes to build the work into a platform by working with community agencies to support fatherhood initiatives and raise awareness.

We’re featuring photo projects about fatherhood all week on PDN Photo of the Day. See our related Father’s Day post here. – See more at: https://potd.pdnonline.com/2014/06/27283#sthash.uvAWm1PD.dpuf

Archives

Follow Us

About Us

PDN Photo of the Day displays photographs selected by the editors of Photo District News, a publication for photo professionals.

The photos on this blog come from a variety of sources. All images are published with permission of the photographer or copyright owner, are handouts provided for press use, or are images known to be in the public domain. PDN cannot give you permission to copy or publish these images. Whenever possible, we provide a link to the copyright owner or publisher of the original image.